Champions League group stage draw today

France After determining the remaining six teams from the play-off round, the European Football Federation (UEFA) will draw lots to divide the groups for the 32 teams participating in the Champions League in Monaco today.

* Champions League group stage draw: 11pm today, August 31.

Six teams passed the play-off round to receive the final tickets to the group stage: PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Antwerp (Belgium), Copenhagen (Denmark), Braga (Portugal), Galatasaray (Turkey) and Young Boys (Switzerland).

Under UEFA rules, the champions of the top six national leagues in the "country coefficient" - compiled over the last five seasons - will be in pot one, along with the Champions League and Europa League winners.

Haaland celebrates winning the Champions League trophy after the final match at Ataturk Stadium on June 10. Photo: Lapresse — Haaland celebrates winning the Champions League trophy after the final match at Ataturk Stadium on June 10. Photo: *Lapresse*

Pot one for the Champions League group stage draw next season will be Man City (Premier League, Champions League champions), Sevilla (Europa League), Barca (La Liga), Bayern Munich (Bundesliga), PSG (Ligue 1), Napoli (Serie A), and Benfica (Portugal). But because Man City won both the Premier League and Champions League, the remaining spot went to Dutch champions - Feyenoord.

Meanwhile, the remaining clubs will be grouped based on their "club coefficient" points, with each team's results over the last five European seasons taken into account. Under the rules, clubs from the same national association cannot be drawn together.

Group 1: Man City, Barca, Sevilla, Bayern, PSG, Napoli, Benfica, Feyenoord

Group 2: Real Madrid, Man Utd, Inter Milan, Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig, Porto, Arsenal

Group 3: Shakhtar Donetsk, Salzburg, AC Milan, Braga, Lazio, Red Star Belgrade, Copenhagen, PSV

Group 4: Real Sociedad, Galatasaray, Celtic, Newcastle, Union Berlin, Lens, Young Boys, Antwerp

This grouping could create a group of death with Newcastle, Real Sociedad, Galatasaray from pot 4, AC Milan, Lazio in pot 3, with two representatives from the remaining two seeded groups. Among them, Man City and Inter Milan could meet again in the group stage, after meeting in the final of the 2022-2023 season.

The Champions League group stage will begin on September 19 and conclude on December 13. The draw for the round of 16 will take place on December 18, with the first legs taking place in February 2024, on the 13th, 14th and 20th, 21st, with the return legs taking place three weeks later.

UEFA will then draw the quarter-finals and semi-finals. The quarter-finals will be played on 9 and 10 April, with the return legs taking place a week later. The semi-finals will be played on 30 April and 1 May, with the return legs taking place a week later.

The final match took place at Wembley Stadium in London, England on June 1.

From the 2024-2025 season, the number of teams participating in the Champions League will increase to 36, instead of 32 as in the current format, competing according to the "Swiss model" like chess and some e-sports. The 36 participating teams will be seeded based on past performance.

According to this model, in the first round, the first team will meet the 36th team, the second team will meet the 35th team. In the second round, the first round winners will meet, the tied teams will meet, and the losing teams will meet. The higher the score, the more likely it is that the teams will meet, creating more big battles.

After 10 rounds, the eight strongest teams will go straight to the round of 16. The next 16 teams will compete in a play-off to select the remaining eight teams to enter the round of 16. The teams from 17th to 24th will go down to the Europa League, while the bottom 12 teams are eliminated.

Hong Duy

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